Avon's "Hello Green Tomorrow" Campaign

Towards a better world
By Earl D.C. Bracamonte

Avon, the company for women, recently launched efforts to encourage each one to commit to a greener Earth. Simply dubbed “Hello Green Tomorrow,” the initiative is committed to a very special woman: Mother Earth!

The company is using its unique ability to mobilize people, particularly women, starting with its 'army' of more than 6.2 million sales representatives to nurture Nature and support the conservation of our environment. “Hello Green Tomorrow” (HGT) is an empowering eco-awareness campaign to raise funds from the sale of its reusable bags and drive environmental education in more than 65 countries including the Philippines. Net proceeds from these reusable bags (priced at a measly P39!) will go to the reforestation project of ABS-CBN's Bantay Kalikasan at the La Mesa Dam watershed. Aside from these, regular use of the HGT bags will mean less need for plastic or paper bags, both of which come with environmental repercussions, with the former contaminating the soil and water, and the latter using up a significant number of trees.


On an international scale, the initiative kicked off with a $1 million donation to The Nature Conservancy for the replanting of one million trees in the Atlantic Rainforest of South America's Amazon Jungle, otherwise known as the 'lungs of the Earth.' The Atlantic Rainforest stretches across parts of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay, and is one of the most endangered tropical forests on Earth. Presently, only 7 percent of its forest cover remains. And sadly, this area has the highest impact on climate change.
Did you know that fallen leaves contain 50-80 percent of nutrients that a tree extracts from the Earth? By composting them, we help the soil replenish itself.

Let's all replant and repopulate our barren forestlands. Each one of us should plant one or more trees on our own, with a group of friends or through the Avon HGT program which supports ABS-CBN Foundation's Bantay Kalikasan tree-planting project. Us media attendees, who were very fortunate to be part of the undertaking, planted two seedlings each at the La Mesa watershed nursery.

Did you know planting trees is one of the most efficient ways to remove excess levels of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere? Through the process of photosynthesis, trees absorb carbon dioxide and water. We need trees especially during rainy seasons to absorb all the rainfall. That's why areas near denuded forests are flooded and elevated areas erode causing landslides.

“Tree planting is the beginning of this campaign and it begins now because it takes 20 years to grow a single tree. Globally, Avon is also campaigning to repopulate the Amazon rainforest. If we all work together and rely on each other then we can make a difference here in the Philippines and elsewhere,” declared Avon Phils. GM Mike Gudgin.

We, too, can reduce fuel consumption by shopping smarter. Consumers who order products from an Avon representative save on transportation or gas money as purchases are delivered directly to their homes. Car owners should share a ride with those working in the same office, building and/or area.

By reusing shopping bags, especially plastic ones, we help decongest our rivers and dumpsite with plastic waste. If each consumer around the world uses one fewer plastic bag per week, we will have saved almost 60,000,000 gallons (approximately 227, 000,000 liters) of oil from the bag manufacturing process.

Plastic bags are harmful to our environment. They are made from a non-renewable resource – meaning non-biodegradable - regardless of what business establishments print in their plastic bags claiming the opposite. If they really want to help, then let them use recycled paper products. Making paper from recycled materials lessens air pollution by 74 percent and water pollution by 35 percent! The production and disposal of plastic bags create greenhouse gases and use energy. Plastics break down slowly and remain in the environment for a long, long time. When buried, some plastic materials may last for 700 years! And by the way, did you know an average baby generates a ton of garbage every year from all those disposables? It's high time mothers switched to lampin like the old days.

Let's recycle items of glass and metal, as well as paper such as magazines and/or newspapers whenever possible. One recycled aluminum container can save enough electricity to operate a TV for 3 hours while recycling a glass bottle saves enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for 4 hours! Glass never wears out. It can be recycled forever.
 
If every consumer recycles even just two old magazines per year, we will have avoided putting 282 million pounds (127,000 metric tons) of waste into landfills. If you stack up all the paper an average person uses in a year, the pile would be as tall as a 2-storey house! Paper accounts for more than 40 percent of a landfill's contents and newspapers take up as much as 13 percent of landfill space. Cigarette butts, chewing gum, and candy wrappers, on the other hand, account for about 95 percent of all the litter in the world! Recycling even half the world's paper would save 20 million acres of forestland while recycling a 6-foot tall stock of newspaper saves the life of a 35-foot-tall tree.
 
Rethink about how you can easily save energy through the use of efficient light bulbs, turning off lights when not needed and unplugging appliances when not in use. Tivo, TVs, cable boxes, sound systems, VCRs, DVD players, computers/printers, and cable modems/DSL often use 10 to 50 watts each while on standby mode; or up to 30-kilowatt hours a month if they're just turned off but not unplugged from the sockets for 20 hours a day.

“The 5 Rs of our campaign - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Replant and Rethink – are simple steps yet can prove to be very effective especially if practiced through a concerted effort,” enthused GM Gudgin, who shared that Avon also stands against domestic violence.

“If we don't act on these concerns now, this planet will become one awful mess,” he added.

With HGT, Avon hopes to help everyone realize that each of us can do his or her own part in helping save the environment, for today and for generations to come.
Avon, the company for women, is a leading global beauty company with almost $9 billion in annual revenue. As the world's largest direct seller, it markets to women in well over 100 countries through over five million independent sales representatives. Its product line includes such well-recognized brand names as Avon Color (beauty products), Anew and Skin-So-Soft (skin care), Avon Solutions, Avon Naturals, Avon Fashions (fashion jewelry and apparel) and Avon Wellness.
 
To learn more about Avon, its products, its advocacy and its meaningful earning opportunities, simply log-on to www.avon.com.ph.

Comments

Popular Posts